John M. Ashton, Ph.D.

Contact Information

Phone Numbers

Office: (585) 275-7276

Research Labs

UR GRC

Visit UR GRC Lab Website

Locations

University of Rochester Medical Center
School of Medicine and Dentistry
601 Elmwood Ave, Box 704
Rochester, NY 14642

Faculty Appointments

Associate Professor - Department of Biomedical Genetics (SMD)

Biography

Professional Background

John M. Ashton, Ph.D., M.B.A., is an associate professor of Biomedical Genetics, assistant director for Shared Resources, and director of the Genomics Shared Resource for the Wilmot Cancer Institute. He also directs the University of Rochester Genomic Research Center, GRC Bioinformatics, and the Functional Genomics Center. He is also a member of the Genetics, Epigenetics and Metabolism Research Program at Wilmot. In those roles, Ashton works directly with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and principal investigators, offering advice, consultation, and mentorship on experimental design and analyses.

Research

Ashton’s research expertise and interests are in cancer biology, specifically leukemia stem cell (LSC) biology. His graduate thesis work led to the discovery of novel gene sets and pathways critical for regulating LSC function. He also showed that perturbation of these gene sets through pharmacological interventions led to impairment of LSC function.

He has also focused on the development and refinement of gene transfer techniques in order to perform genetic manipulation in primary human leukemia patient samples to investigate mechanisms critical to LSC function. Currently, he is adapting single-cell transcriptomic methodologies for use with primary stem and progenitor cell populations to characterize molecular mechanisms underlying malignant stem cell biology.

Credentials

Education

2003
BS | Rochester Institute of Technology
Biotechnology

2008
MS | University of Rochester
Genetics

2011
PhD | University of Rochester
Genetics

2017
MBA | Simon Business School
Competitive and Organizational Strategy, Computer Information Systems

Publications

Journal Articles

7/6/2023
Liu X, Burke RM, Lighthouse JK, Baker CD, Dirkx RA, Kang B, Chakraborty Y, Mickelsen DM, Twardowski J, Mello SS, Ashton JM, Small EM. "P53 Regulates the Extent of Fibroblast Proliferation and Fibrosis in Left Ventricle Pressure Overload." Circulation research.. 2023 Jul 6; Epub 2023 Jul 06.

4/10/2023
Kawano Y, Kawano H, Ghoneim D, Fountaine TJ, Byun DK, LaMere MW, Mendler JH, Ho T, Salama NA, Myers JR, Hussein SE, Frisch BJ, Ashton JM, Azadniv M, Liesveld JL, Kfoury Y, Scadden DT, Becker MW, Calvi LM. "Myelodysplastic syndromes disable human CD271 VCAM1 CD146 niches supporting normal hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells." bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology.. 2023 Apr 10; Epub 2023 Apr 10.

2023
Osborn RM, Leach J, Zanche M, Ashton JM, Chu C, Thakar J, Dewhurst S, Rosenberger S, Pavelka M, Pryhuber GS, Mariani TJ, Anderson CS. "Preparation of noninfectious scRNAseq samples from SARS-CoV-2-infected epithelial cells." PloS one.. 2023 18(2):e0281898. Epub 2023 Feb 24.

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